Kingdom of the Blind

by David Bishop

  The yellow cloud was first; light bouncing from edge to edge, bringing a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" from all who saw it. Next came green, verdant hues of emerald and jade, bathing the city in luminescence. Then the two clouds combined to create striations of colour and intensity surpassing imagination.

  Those citizens still out on the streets hurried home or called friends and family to tell them about the wonders overhead. Parents and children spilled out of bed to witness this once-in-a-lifetime extravaganza. Within minutes, news stations were being flooded with calls about the pyrotechnics and images of the spectacle were being broadcast on all the major Tri-D channels.

  On the Mega-City News, Enigma Smith was almost speechless with awe. She had won a battle to escape from the studio, persuading her producer to authorise a rare outside broadcast from the roof garden of Ruprecht Maxwell's headquarters. Smith enthused live to air while the light show was visible behind her in the sky.

  "Get out of your beds, get out of your con-apts, people of Mega-City One," she urged. "Never in her life has this reporter seen such glory, such majesty. It makes you feel lucky to be alive this night, lucky to have savoured this wonder! Don't be selfish and wake up your neighbours, your friends, even your enemies. I can only say I feel sorry for those who can't see what I am looking at now. You don't want to miss this spectacle of spectacles."

  A particularly intense burst of light overhead took the words from Smith's mouth. After watching for a few seconds she looked at the camera, tears filling her eyes. "You know what? I'm not going to spoil this moment by talking all over the top of it. Let these pictures tell the story for you."

  "Control to Chief Judge, please respond. Control to Chief Judge, can you hear this message? Please respond!" The voice speaking through the comms speaker on Hershey's desk was becoming frantic. "Control to all units close to the Chief Judge's office, please-"

  "I'm here, for grud's sake!" Hershey snapped, returning to her desk. "What's so drokkin' urgent I can't take a minute away to look at the fireworks?"

  "It's about what's happening in the sky, ma'am. The director of the Dustbuster called in to say the museum's board cancelled the display this afternoon when it discovered who was sponsoring the event."

  "Let me guess, Jesus Bludd," the Chief Judge replied. "Then where is the light show coming from?"

  "Tek-Division believes it may be fall-out from an old satellite that exploded while trying to re-enter Earth's atmosphere, ma'am."

  Hershey mused on this. "Get me Justice Seven. We need to know more about what we're dealing with."

  "That's the other problem, ma'am. Justice Seven was destroyed trying to intercept the satellite. Their last transmission was scrambled with static. It's taken Tek-Division several minutes to reconstruct the message. Justice Seven relayed an encrypted manifest. It seems the satellite was carrying some kind of biological or chemical weapon. No further details available."

  "Stomm," Hershey whispered. "Recall all street Judges to Sector Houses, now! If that yellow and green light show is raining a bioweapon down on the city, we don't need any more helmets being exposed to it."

  "Yes, ma'am!"

  The Chief Judge sank into her chair, aware of her eyes starting to itch. Probably psychosomatic, but she should get it checked by the Med-Judges. It would give her a chance to see how Dredd was doing. He'd been stabilised and shifted into the Grand Hall's medical bay just before the light show had begun over the city.

  Her thoughts were cut short by an incoming call from Niles at PSU. "Ma'am, have you been outside to see the pyrotechnics display?"

  "Yes, I just came back in. McTighe has already warned me about possible contaminants, so I've recalled all our-"

  "Sorry to interrupt but you should switch your main screen to multiview."

  Hershey pushed a button on her desk. Part of the opposite wall slid away to reveal an array of Tri-D monitors. "Show me multiview," the Chief Judge commanded. Each screen came alive, displaying a different broadcast channel from among the tens of thousands serving the city. On every monitor were scenes of chaos on the streets, people staggering around clutching at their faces, blood trickling from their eyes. After a few seconds the images were replaced with feeds from different channels. "Sound on," Hershey said. She was overwhelmed by a cacophony of voices, all telling similar stories.

  "Reports are coming in about a plague of blindness that appears to be sweeping across the Big Meg. So far we've had dozens of calls from-"

  "Citizens everywhere are bleeding from their eyes, unable to see anything but a blur, everything fading into darkness and-"

  "It began a few minutes ago and already our switchboard has been overloaded as concerned cits are calling us to-"

  "Chaos is gripping the streets of the Big Meg as people stagger-"

  "The wave of blindness is spreading faster than any disease-"

  "We estimate tens of thousands are already affected and many-"

  "Could the affliction be linked to the light display still going on above the city? So far there has been no statement from the Judges but-"

  "The end is nigh! The end is nigh! Abandon hope as God punishes the sinners and takes their vision from-"

  "Don't go outside, don't look outside. That's the warning from-"

  "We've had reports of roadsters crashing into buildings-"

  "Stratbats and other aircraft are falling from the sky-"

  "Fires are spreading rapidly, out of control and with nobody to-"

  "Apparently the first symptom is itching behind the eyes, then a trickle of blood begins seeping out. Within a few minutes the victims are blind, unable to see their hands in front of their faces. So far-"

  "I'm Enigma Smith and I've been struck blind like many of you. What has caused this apparently citywide catastrophe? Who can reverse this plague of sightlessness? What hope can there be for a city where none can see?"

  "Sound off," Hershey commanded. Sweet Jovus, what was happening? She felt something running down one side of her face. The Chief Judge touched her cheek and felt a trickle of moisture. When she looked at her fingers, they were covered in blood. "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," she whispered, remembering the quotation Bludd had been discussing over synthi-caf with Dredd just a few hours earlier. Already the room was growing dark, although she knew the lighting level had not changed.

  "Hershey to Control. I am hereby instituting a total curfew over the entire city, effective from 1:00 am. All citizens are to remain indoors until further notice. Any caught outside their homes after one will be considered looters and may be shot on sight. Have that broadcast on every Tri-D channel in the city, jam their signals with ours if you have to." The Chief Judge broke off her transmission to cringe inwardly at what she had said. Shot on sight! That assumed there were still any Judges who could see to do the shooting. Hershey resumed her message. "Contact all offworld Judges within three days of Earth and tell them to return to Mega-City One immediately. Get all Council of Five members to stand by a vidphone. I'll be conducting a conference call meeting with them beginning in fifteen minutes. Is that clear?"

  "Yes, ma'am. Anything else?"

  "Yes. Call all Sector Houses and department facilities in the city. Find out how many sighted Judges they still have, we need to know just how bad our situation is. And send somebody who can see up to my office. I'm going to need them to be my eyes from now on. Make it Auburn." Hershey switched off the comms unit, her fingers fumbling for the controls.

  In the time it had taken to reel off her orders, she had gone blind.

  Giant was one of the lucky ones. When the yellow and green lights began dancing in the sky over Mega-City One, the Judge was stuck inside trying to prise a bottle of foul-smelling liquid from Smirnoff. The East-Meg Two delegate had somehow managed to smuggle it past all the security checks and was drinking himself into a stupor when Giant arrived to check on him just before midnight.

  "It's not synthi-vodka, tovarisch, but it'll do in an emergency,"
Smirnoff slurred before holding the bottle out to Giant. "Would you like a taste?"

  "Thanks." Giant accepted it but then tipped the remaining liquid out on the floor of the safe house. An acrid stench attacked his nostrils as the spillage sank into the floor covering. "What in the name of grud is that?"

  "Metal polish, cut with a little lemon juice," Smirnoff replied. "Not my first choice, comrade, but you took that away too."

  "Is there anything you won't drink? You'll go blind if you keep this up."

  The East-Meg Two delegate shrugged. "Least I won't be alone."

  "What do you mean by that?" Giant demanded.

  Smirnoff hiccupped. "You'll see, my little black friend. You'll see." He tried to get up from the floor and failed miserably. "What time is it?"

  "Twelve fifteen. Why?"

  "Then it has already started. Soon he'll send for us."

  "What's started? Who'll send for you? Ivan, you aren't making sense."

  "I never do. It's part of my naïve charm."

  Giant shook his head as he regarded the sprawled mess of the Russian on the floor. "How about I get you into bed so you can sleep this off? The Chief Judge will be expecting you at the next treaty session bright and early."

  Smirnoff laughed hollowly. "There will be no more talk. You will see."

  Before Giant could reply his helmet radio demanded attention.

  "Control to all Judges. Do not, repeat, do not go outside or look at the lights in the sky overhead. If you have already seen these lights, stop whatever you are doing and report to the nearest Sector House or medical centre. All those already afflicted by blindness should remain where they are until further instructions are issued. The Chief Judge has announced a curfew for all citizens, effective from 1:00 am. Message repeats. Control to all Judges..."

  Giant found the orders hard to understand. What lights overhead, what blindness? He almost went to the windows of the safe house to see what was going on before remembering the warning. Control would not have given such a directive without good reason. The Judge crouched beside Smirnoff and began slapping the semi-conscious delegate's face. "Ivan! Ivan, wake up! How did you know about this blindness?"

  Callaghan was monitoring Dredd's condition when the first sightless Judge stumbled into the Grand Hall of Justice's medical bay. Farrow had been on patrol nearby when the lights began filling the sky. A few minutes later the young law enforcer realised he was bleeding from the eyes and immediately headed back to the Grand Hall. Farrow abandoned his Lawmaster by the front steps and stumbled into the building as his sight faded away. It had taken him another ten minutes to reach the medical bay, bumping into dozens of other stricken Judges along the way. "I don't know what the hell's happened," he said, blood dripping from both sides of his face. "One minute I could see fine, the next, nothing."

  Callaghan examined Farrow's eyes. They were bloodshot and still weeping red, but there was no obvious sign of cause or contaminant. She gave him some drops to soothe the irritation and sent him to the nearby dormitories. "There's nothing else I can do for you right now. You may need an eye specialist or even bionic replacements if the condition is permanent."

  "Bionic eyeballs?" Farrow asked uncertainly.

  "Don't knock 'em till you've tried them," Callaghan replied. She jerked a thumb towards Dredd, then realised the pointlessness of her gesture. "Dredd over there had his eyeballs ripped out twenty years ago. After they fitted the bionics, he thought they were an improvement on the real thing - even said he should have had them fitted sooner!"

  "Really?"

  "Well, that's what I was told during training. Look, if your condition hasn't improved within a few hours I'll examine you again." Callaghan went out into the corridor and found an admin robot. "I need you to escort a Judge to the dormitories. He's been blinded and-"

  The robot just waved her away. "Haven't you heard? Half the city's gone blind and most of the Judges with it!" The droid hurried away, muttering and shaking its head.

  Callaghan realised she must have switched off her helmet radio to concentrate while treating Dredd earlier. She reactivated it and was hit by a blizzard of radio traffic, dozens of voices overlapping and shouting to be heard.

  "Sweet Jovus, I can't see a-"

  "Porter to Control, need medical assist. Vision went blurry and crashed my Lawmaster into shoppera window. Believe I may be bleeding-"

  "It's madness out here! People screaming and crying, all the-"

  "Can't face carrying on if I can't see. Have decided to-"

  A gunshot punctuated the last message. It sounded to Callaghan like a Judge had committed suicide. What the drokk was happening outside?

  One voice cut through the barrage, commanding the others to silence. "Control to all Judges! All unauthorised messages are to cease forthwith, in view of the current crisis. Keep this frequency open for emergencies only!"

  Emergencies only? Callaghan wondered if anything wasn't an emergency in this city. She returned to the medical bay where Farrow was stumbling around, trying to find the exit. The Med-Judge led him to the door and put his hand against the left wall.

  "Go straight ahead from here. You want the fourth door on the left, it will take you to the dormitories. You got that?"

  Farrow nodded. "Sounds like one hell of a mess out there. I'm probably one of the lucky ones, made it back here alive. Well, see you on the..." His voice trailed away as the young Judge realised what he was saying. He sighed and stumbled away, keeping one hand on the wall as a guide.

  Callaghan went back inside the medical bay to find Dredd trying to sit up on the hover-stretcher. "Are you determined to kill yourself?" she demanded. "We only just saved your life, Dredd. Don't undo all my good work straight away! We're going to need every able-bodied Judge we can from what I hear."

  "What do you mean? What's going on?"

  "Some kind of sudden blindness seems to have afflicted large parts of the city. More than half our street Judges have been affected," she explained.

  "Where's my helmet?" Dredd demanded.

  Callaghan retrieved it from a pile of possessions lying nearby. "Let me check your cranium first. We were forced to drill a hole into your skull to evacuate a blood clot on the brain." She moved to the end of the hover-stretcher and carefully peeled back one edge of the rapi-heal patch. This remarkable invention was capable of accelerating the body's natural healing ability by a factor of one hundred. Broken bones could be reset and harder than ever within a few hours instead of a few weeks.

  Already the patch had knitted Dredd's skull back together across the hole left by the laser scalpel, and fresh skin was forming to cover it. Satisfied, the Med-Judge pushed the patch back into position and eased Dredd's helmet gently on to his head. "You'll be vulnerable there for days, until the skull has completely regenerated," she advised. "Tek-Judges repaired your radio mic while you were being treated."

  Dredd touched a hand to the side of his helmet. "It's gone."

  "The translucent disc?" Callaghan asked. "Tek-Division has that. They think it was some kind of relay device."

  "Bludd's enforcer was using it to feed me instructions."

  "That's why you attacked me, why you hijacked the med-wagon."

  "I had no choice," Dredd replied. Wincing from the pain, he raised himself into a sitting position with Callaghan's aid and looked at the patchwork of rapi-heals covering much of his body. "I have to see the Chief Judge."

  "You're lucky to be alive. At least give yourself a chance to heal properly."

  "I haven't got time to heal. The city needs me."

  After twenty-seven minutes the yellow and green lights over Mega-City One began to fade away, their dazzling display of movement and colour dissipating. But nobody still outside was disappointed to see the end of the pyrotechnics, because nobody outside could see anymore. The contents of the satellite had done their job. The Big Meg had become a kingdom of the blind.

  Callaghan sighed as she helped Dredd zip up the upper half of his unif
orm. "I still say you should remain here, under observation, at least until morning."

  "I need a new Lawgiver," the wounded lawman replied.

  Callaghan retrieved her own weapon and deactivated the self-destruct mechanism built into its grip. "You can have mine, but now anyone can fire it. If you want a Lawgiver coded to only your heat signature, you'll have to see the quartermaster in the Armoury."

  Dredd nodded as he took the weapon, slotting it into his boot holster. The Med-Judge remained in front of him, blocking the way out. "Have you listened to a word I've said?" Callaghan asked.

  "I heard you. Now get out of my way."

  She stepped aside so Dredd could leave. "Fine. See how far you get."

  He rose to his feet, swayed for a few moments and then sank back down on to the hover-stretcher. "Grud dammit," Dredd hissed in frustration. He glared at Callaghan, who rapidly removed the amused expression from her face. "You'll have to help me."

  "I can't leave the medical bay unmanned. What if there's an emergency?"

  "It's already happened," Dredd replied. "Now, are you going to help me to the Chief Judge's office, or do I have to crawl there?"

  TWELVE

  Hershey was sat behind her desk, listening to news reports from the bank of Tri-D screens in her office. Light from dozens of different images illuminated the room with a chaos of colours, but the Chief Judge was facing away from the monitors. Like other victims of the blindness, her eyes stopped bleeding soon after the light storm above the city faded away, but her sight had not returned. A cursory examination by Med-Judges confirmed she was suffering the same symptoms as everyone else affected, but none of the medics could offer any answers about when or even if Mega-City One's Chief Judge would get her sight back.

  "Auburn, are you still here?" Hershey asked, trying to keep panic from her voice. To go blind gradually was one thing, you could prepare yourself for that. But to suddenly have vision torn from you, that was a shock. Hershey had never been afraid of the dark as a child. Now she found herself surrounded by it and the sensation was chilling.